Frank Rieger - Beyond Asimov's Three Laws for Robotics

Frank Rieger is technical director of a company for communications security. He is co-founder of successful startup companies in the areas of data security, navigation services and e-reading. Since 1990 he has been a spokesperson for the Chaos Computer Club, one of the largest hacker and digital citizen rights organization worldwide. He has been active in the field of digital security for more then 15 years now and has worked and published extensively on many aspects of the influence technology and the net have on society, citizen rights and politics. He has co-authored expert opinons for the german constitutional court on subjects like voting computers and data retention. Professionally he works as CTO for a company that manufactures secure communications products.

In the video below, Reiger discusses developing rules for autonomous systems.

Robotic systems  are becoming more and more autonomous, and telepresence develops very rapidly. But what happens if things go wrong? Who is responsible for that autonomous cleaning car murdering tourists? How can you identify the owner of that spy-drone filming you naked at the pool? This talk outlines some ideas to trigger a debate on how to deal with these problems, without stifling innovation and fun.

Asimovs three laws of robotics are the first thing that comes to mind when the "how should robots be regulated" question comes up. However, with the current level of technology these "laws" are irrelevant and can not be implemented. But we need other rules and laws to govern the use of autonomous and telepresence systems. Clear responsibilities need to be defined and enforced, without stifling innovation, development and fun.

The talk will suggest the development of a "P2P TÜV" system for people and groups who build autonomous and telepresence systems before there are relevant official laws and regulations. The core idea is to think out and test practical ways to cope with the risks and uncertainties, so that there is a relevant body of experiences when the debates about official laws and rules begin. Building on the experience of the experimental aircraft movement, a P2P sanity and safety check system seems to be the right way to do this.

The second part of the talk will discuss possible regulation areas like laws, insurance rules, type approvals and number plates where experiences can be drawn from existing fields of technology regulation like steam engines and cars. Developing a position of the hobbyist and hacker community on robotic law may seem a bit early. But experience shows that technology development is fast and we need to come up with suggestions and ideas before a mad luddite mob does, or hordes of armed robocops roam the streets and skies.